Teal Drake by the Reeds, Plate CLXXVI after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique bird print, a photogravure printed in black and gray, uncolored. It shows a Teal drake standing on one leg at the water's edge before a clump of reeds, facing left. A dark band runs from the eye back to the nape, outlined above and below by narrow pale lines that set it off from the rest of the head. The breast is closely spotted, the flanks are finely vermiculated, long scapulars striped dark and pale lie across the folded wing, and a pale triangular patch edged in black marks the side of the undertail. The bill is dark and fairly short.

The sheet is lettered "PLATE CLXXVI." in italic capitals at lower right. Below the image is the note "2/3 scale", meaning the bird is drawn at two thirds of its natural size. The artist's signature "L. M. Medland" is written in the image at lower right.

The plate comes from The Birds of the British Islands by Charles Stonham, published in London by E. Grant Richards in five volumes between 1906 and 1911. This sheet belongs to the third volume, which takes the water birds in systematic order, from the cormorants and herons through the geese and swans to the ducks. The illustrations are after drawings by Lilian M. Medland and are reproduced in photogravure, a photomechanical intaglio process that carries the soft tones of a wash drawing and leaves a plate mark around the image. As throughout the work, no name is printed beneath the bird; each plate carries only its number, a note of the scale of reproduction and the artist's signature. Medland later married the ornithologist Tom Iredale and moved to Australia.

Printed in soft black and gray with wide margins, the plate suits a plain frame with a generous mat, alone or beside other plates from the same volume.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.